Retailing and Merchandising in Textiles and Appare

Retailing and Merchandising in Textiles and Appare 3(2+1)

Lesson 25 : Exports And Imports

Export Promotion Councils

Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, is the primary agency responsible for the policy formulations, regulations, development and export promotion in respect of Textile handicrafts, handlooms, jute, cotton, wool, silk, and other fibres, other than non-cellulosic synthetic fibres such as nylon and polyester acrylic.

List of Organizations / Bodies under the Ministry of Textiles:

• Public Sector Undertakings
• Textile Research Associations
• Export Promotion Councils
• Advisory Bodies
• Autonomous Bodies
• Commodity Board
• Other Offices

Autonomous Bodies:

• Central Wool Development Board, Jodhpur
• National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi
• National Centre for Jute Diversification.

Statutory Bodies:

• Central Silk Board, Bangalore
• Jute Manufactures Development Council, Kolkata
• Textiles Committee, Mumbai

Public Sector Undertakings:

• Central Cottage Industries Corporation Ltd., New Delhi
• Cotton Corporation of India Ltd., Mumbai
• National Textiles Corporation Ltd.
• National Jute Manufactures Corporation, Kolkata
• Handicrafts and Handlooms Exports Corporation of India Ltd., New Delhi

Textiles Research Association:

• Ahmedabad Textiles Industry’s Research Association
• Bombay Textiles Research Association, Mumbai
• Indian Jute Industries Research association, Kolkata
• Man-made Textiles Research Association, Surat
• Synthetic and art silk –Mills Research Association, Mumbai
• Wool Research Association, Thane
• Northern India Textiles Research Association, Gaziabad
• South India Textiles Research Association, Coimbatore.

Role & Functions of EPCs: Out of the 28 Export promotion councils, eight Textile export promotion councils promote and develop the exports of the country. They are non-profit organizations registered under the Companies Act, 1956 or the Societies Registration Act. The role and functions of the EPCs are as follows:

• The main role of the EPCs is to project India's image abroad as a reliable supplier of high quality goods and services.
• In particular, the EPCs shall encourage and monitor the observance of international standards and specifications by exporters.
• The EPCs shall keep abreast of the trends and opportunities in international markets for goods and services and assist their members in taking advantage of such opportunities in order to expand and diversify exports.

The major functions of the EPCs are as follows:

• To provide commercial and useful information and assistance to their members 111 developing and increasing their exports.
• To offer professional advice to their members in areas such as technology up gradation, quality and design improvement, standards and specifications, product development, innovation, etc.
• To organize visits of delegations of its members abroad to explore overseas market opportunities.
• To organize participation in· trade fairs, exhibitions and buyer-seller meets in India and abroad.
• To promote interaction between the exporting community and the Government both the central and state levels.
• To build a statistical base and provide data on the exports and imports of the country, exports and imports of their members, as well as other relevant international trade data.

Textile committee-MUMBAI:

The Textile Committee is a member of

• American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC), USA.
• American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), USA
• The Textile Institute International (TII), Manchester UK.
• Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), India
• National Centre for Quality Management (NCQM), Mumbai, India.
• Indian Fibre Society (IFS), Mumbai, India.
• ISO 9000 + 14000 News Service, ISO, Switzerland.
• Society of Dyers and Colourists (SDC)
• Textiles Committee is a statutory body, under Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, set up under an Act of Parliament in 1963 with basic objective of ensuring quality in textiles.
• Committee has head office in Mumbai and 29 other offices in major textile centers in the country
• Management is vested in a 29-member committee representing the union government , export promotion council, textile industry &trade and TRAs
• Consequent to economic liberalization, the Textiles Committee reoriented its role from that of regulatory to development.

The present activities of the Committee include:

• Testing of textiles, chemicals, dyes and effluents
• Consultancy for setting up of textile testing laboratories and for implementing ISO 17025-laboratory management system to secure accreditation by National Accreditation Board for testing and calibration Laboratories (NABL).
• Consultancy for implementation of ISO 9000/14000 Quality Environmental Management Systems and SA 8000/ 10HSAS 18000 Systems in textile industry.
• Assistance to exporters by way of quality appraisal of textiles, issue of GSP and other certificates to exporters under various international agreements.
• Market survey to assess the consumption of textiles in India.
• R & D projects and Industry specific Surveys and Census related to textile sector.
• HRD programmes for the industry personnel and Educational Institutes.

Committee played lead role in developing textile-testing facilities and generating awareness about eco-friendly textiles, in view on ban imposed on certain dyes and chemicals by the Government of India as well as foreign countries.

Laboratories across India: Committee has 19 laboratories or testing of textiles, dyes, chemicals and effluents in major textile centers in India.

Large clientele: Around 35,000 textile exporters located in major textile centers in India avail of services of the committee. Various central, state government organizations utilize the testing facilities.

Some of the important instruments/equipment in the Laboratories are

• Gas Chromatograph with Mass Spectrophotometer (GC-MS)
• Gas Chromatograph with Electron Capture Detector (GC-ECD) High Performance Liquid Chromatograph (HPLC)
• High Performance Thin Layer Chromatograph (HPTLC)
• Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS)
• Ultra Violet - Visible Spectrophotometer (UV-VIS)
• FT-Infra Red Spectrometer (FTIR)
• Total Organic Carbon Analyser (TOC)
• High Volume Instrument (HVI)
• Universal Tensile Tester
• Evenness Tester
• Light Fastness Tester (Xeno Tester)
• Reflectance Spectrophotometer / Computerised Colour Matching (CCM) Spectrophotometer
• Wool Fibre Diagram

Highly Reliable Testing Standards:
All 19 laboratories are equipped with sophisticated imported & indigenous world-class equipment. National & international standard methods adopted as per customer requirements include:

• Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)
• American Society for Testing & Materials (ASTM)
• American Association of Textiles Chemists & Colorists (AATCC)
• International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
• British Standards (BS)
• British Standards for European Nations (BSEN) Deutsches Institute fur Normung (DIN)
• International Wool Secretariat (IWS)
• Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS)
• American Public Health Association (APHA)

Highly accurate, reliable and unbiased test results, statutory body, committee can guarantee for results in court of law also.

Proficiency testing:

• The laboratories have participated in Inter-Laboratory Proficiency Testing (ILPT) programmes conducted by international organizations such as ASTM-USA, Institute for Inter-laboratory Studies (llS).Netherlands and by NABL-India, for Quality and Eco parameters from time to time. The performance of the laboratories in all these programmes is very good, which shows the repeatability and reproducibility of the test results
• The laboratory at Mumbai is authorized by the NABL to conduct Inter­Laboratory Proficiency Testing programmes for Quality and Eco parameters of textiles regularly.
• Trained and qualified manpower
• Highly qualified, trained and experienced pool of scientific personnel.
• Personnel manning all imported equipment are trained abroad.
• Over 100 technically competent personnel are posted at the 19 laboratories.

Enhancing competitiveness of Indian textiles and clothing industry:
A facilitator dedicated to quality improvement towards enhancing competitiveness of the textiles industry. Offering world-class services across the length and breadth of the country. Be it testing of textiles through its 19 laboratories, Inspection, Certification and assistance to exporters, consultancy for implementation of ISO 9000 QMS, ISO 14000 EMS, Social Accountability (SA) 8000, OHAS 18001, CSM 2000 standard. Market intelligence and industry specific study, HRD programmes of facilitating the cluster development programme. It's a one-stop shop for textile entrepreneurs to bring competitiveness in to their business, let’s weave a success story together.

Export Promotion Council House- New Delhi
Objectives:

• Providing commercially useful information and assistance to members in developing and increasing exports.
• Offering professional advice and services to members in areas of technology up gradation, quality and design improvement, standards and specifications, product development, innovation etc.
• Organising visits of delegation of its members abroad to explore overseas market opportunities
• Participating in specialized International Trade Fairs of handicrafts & gifts.
• Organizing Indian Handicrafts and Gifts Fair at New Delhi.
• Interaction between exporting community and Govt. both at the Central and State level and representation in almost all the committees / panels of Central and State and represents in almost all the committees / panels of Central and State.
• To create an environment of awareness through Workshops on "Export Marketing, Procedures and Documentation", Packaging, Design Development, Buyer Seller Meet, Open House etc. interaction with Central and State Govt. and various other similar programmes.
• Dissemination of government notification, orders, information on trade and other relevant information to members.